Denouncing All Illicit Earnings Equally

Abid Hussain Rather

Online gambling - gambling via internet websites, internet apps and other social media platforms has become talk of the town and nowadays most people especially youngsters are involved in it; wasting both their precious time and money. Though Internet connectivity has changed every aspect of our lives and has comforted and given new directions and new dimensions to our daily life activities, but simultaneously it has eased and made many social evils damn well reachable and accessible to common masses.

Among many of them, online gambling specially Dream-11 is one of the modern social evils which has become a big-name in our society and currently it has gained its fame widely. People, in the greed of becoming rich overnight, remain busy in this social menace most of the time and waste their precious time and money. Ironically, people keep discussing and debating about its permissibility and impermissibility on religious and moral grounds besides debating whether the money earned through online gambling is Halaal (permissible) or Haram (impermissible) as per Islamic perspective.

Such a situation clearly depicts the ignorance, illiteracy and dilapidated state of our society. It alludes to the lack of religious and moral education among us. On intellectual and moral grounds, any activity ( like gambling ) in which there are maximum chances of losing our money, wastage of our time and which makes us addicted should always be avoided as it has ill effects on us which may ultimately lead to our ruination. Gambling (both online as well as offline) also has many negative social impacts as a major group of society loses its wealth and just few people win due to gambling. As G. B. Shaw has rightly said that in gambling there can't be many winners, so it results in the creation of 'poor' and 'rich' socio-economic classes in the society and destruction of many well-off families.

Speaking through Islamic perspective, participating in each and every kind of online gambling ( like Poker, Casino, sports betting like Dream-11 etc. ) is totally forbidden as there are many verses in Qur'an and many hadiths which clearly depict that participating in such illicit activities is strictly prohibited in Islam as such activities have many negative social impacts like addiction, poverty, hatred, indebtedness, troublous and perturbing family life etc. But unfortunately nowadays most people, especially youngsters in our society remain busy in the social evil of online gambling (specially Dream-11 and Fun-88 Casino) and are wasting their time and money. The saddest part of the story is that due to their ignorance and feeblemindedness, most among them don't find online gambling as a social evil which is religiously and morally prohibited but they rather try to legitimize it through their insane explanations and interpretations.

Greed of wealth has made them intellectually blind and they waste most of their time in online gambling. As members of a religious and civilised society, it is our religious and moral duty to keep ourselves and other people away from online gambling. Because one of the most important interactions between individuals is that of ordering or encouraging what is good while prohibiting or preventing that which is evil. Parents should also be vigilant about their wards' activities on their smartphones while providing them such facilities. Parents need to check the smartphones of their wards regularly so that their wards may not get involved and addicted to the evil of online gambling or other wasteful activities on their smartphones.

Though it can't be denied that there is a large group of educated and civilised people in our society who avoid and denounce the baleful menace of online gambling and the money earned through it. But at this juncture; many questions arise which put a question mark on our proclamation of being members of a civilised and religious society. Is the money earned through corruption and bribery permissible?

Can we use such money for the upbringing of our wards and expect them to be righteous, pious and faithful? Should we give such earnings in charity or donate them for religious constructions? Is the system of usury or interest based business permissible in our religion? Isn't profiteering and gouging a heinous crime on religious and moral grounds? If we are not performing our duties and responsibilities honestly, how can we claim that our earnings are legitimate? Why have we made 'the amount of illicit earnings', wickedness, iniquitousness, hypocrisy as the parameters of honour and respect in our society?

We need to be balanced in our thoughts, words and actions. It is our religious and moral duty to avoid and denounce all these illicit activities equally. We shouldn't forget that money earned through other illicit means is equally prohibited in our religion, hence we should equally avoid and denounce it. As the money obtained through online gambling is Haram, so is the money acquired through bribery and corruption and they need to be equally avoided - because both are equally prohibited in our religion. If we are condemning online gambling, we have to condemn usury, profiteering and gouging also.

If we are not performing our duties honestly, our emoluments and wages are not different from the earnings acquired through online gambling. We can't change the principles from our religious scriptures according to our choice and label things as Haram and Halaal as per our desires. We can't alter or modify the beliefs and laws of our religion to make our lives comfortable. Different laws, rules and regulations have already been stated in our religion regarding these matters and we have to follow them strictly. We can't keep a biased view regarding these issues, otherwise it will be our double standard and we will be counted among hypocrites.

The author can be reached at rather1294@gmail.com